Concept Map - Sketch #2 (College)

I created a concept map with a central idea of "college."  I was trying to accomplish a detailed map that showed me the most important things I am going to gain from having a college degree.  It wasn't as easy as I had thought, and at times I felt frustrated while I tried to connect certain things together.  The two things I branched off of 'college' was 'education' and 'experience.'  After arrowing off from these ideas, I found myself creating a big mess.

 I had to complete a couple rough drafts before I finalized the map, which I used to figure out a way of organization using the arrows, double sided arrows, and the small words connecting the arrows.  I had a breakthrough moment of simplicity when I realized that I can connect each idea on the map to any other idea using arrows and connecting words ... not necessarily a linear map.

This concept map of "college" allowed me to organize the ways in which 'education' gets me to a diploma, knowledge, job, money, quality of life, a good world view, and personal growth.  "College" takes me in a different direction as I organized my ideas of independence, friendship, maturity, personal growth, internships, networking, jobs, and relationships.  In the end, I see that each element of college, both education and experience, leads me to a job and personal growth.

Mind Map - Sketch #1 (Travel/Money)

Background:The central focus image in the center of my page was the problem of travel.  I used the globe as my representation of travel and I decided to do this because I haven't had the opportunity to study abroad or travel outside of the country. It is something that I've always wanted to do and something that I often think about, however it seems unrealistic for me at this point in my life. 

Map 1:The first map, focusing on travel, came very natural for me.  I branched off first with the problem of money.  I attached things like, "need, save, spend, job, work study, etc."  I used a lot of dollar signs to represent this.  I also branched off with "destination."  I connected with things like "passport, where?, travel buddy, Brazil, Europe," etc.  I drew a sun, Eiffel Tower, compass and passport.  "School tuition" was something I branched off from Travel and wrote "expensive, debt, RWU" as well as drawing a money bag and the RWU symbol.  I linked "language" from Travel and wrote "communication, practice, Spanish."  I drew two hands shaking to represent meeting new people.  I associated "World" from Travel and linked "see, experience, new ideas, broaden horizons."  I drew things like a globe inside a hand, an eye, heart, light bulb, etc.   Other factors of Travel were hotel, plane ticket, etc. 

Map 2:After reviewing the first mind map, I realized that the biggest factor prohibiting me from traveling, is money.  I decided to make money the central idea of my second mind map.  I used a big dollar symbol to represent money and branched off with things like, "need, want, job, currency, constant, school, greed, etc."  The most interesting thing that I came across was the difference between the "needs" and "wants."  I noticed that my associated links for "wants" was far longer than than the links I had for "need."  This tells me that I am spending too much money on unnecessary things that make me happy in the moment, but not for the future.  I can cut out a lot of the things that I associated with "wants" like movies, clothes, shoes, going out to eat, day trips, etc.  If I subtracted some of these things and saved, I would eventually have the money that I need to finally see the world. 

Conclusion:
I can conclude that a solution to my problem of not having money and not being able to travel is that I spend too much on day to day "wants" that in the end, don't mean that much to me.  From these mind maps, the solution I have come up with is to evaluate my spending and think about what is more important to me...the new pair of shoes I will be excited about for a few days or a life changing trip.